Question

What weakness made it impossible to regulate a cross-country railroad?

Answer 1

The 1906 gubernatorial campaign in the Democratic primary (complicated by the nonbinding selection of candidates to replace Alabama's two elderly and ill U.S. senators should they die in office before the next legislative session) was one of the most memorable in Alabama's history. The Democratic Party dropped the word "Conservative" from its formal name, demonstrating that it was now comfortable with a more progressive platform. The state's railroads supported Comer's chief opponent, Lieutenant Governor Russell Cunningham, but the line between progressives and conservatives was not clearly drawn. On issues other than railroad rates, Cunningham was as progressive as Comer, who came under severe criticism for his opposition to child labor reform. Comer was a better campaigner and orator than Cunningham, and his verbal attacks on the railroads so aroused Alabama audiences that he won the primary with 61 percent of the vote and the November election with more than 85 percent. A majority of the legislators elected were committed to rate reform, and with this sympathetic legislature to enact and implement his programs, Comer proved to be one of Alabama's most effective governors.

The new governor devoted much of his inaugural address to the issue of railroad reform and requested the legislature pass 20 separate laws to give the railroad commission strong rate-making and enforcement powers. His program was enacted with few changes by March 1907. Lawmakers also added a provision that would revoke the state business license of any corporation bringing suit in federal court on any issue already before a state court.

When the railroads did pursue their case in federal courts, a highly publicized legal fight ensued in the federal district court in Montgomery. The case was presided over by former governor Judge Thomas Goode Jones, who had once served as chief legal counsel for the powerful L&N Railroad. Jones sided with the railroads on every decision, and he enjoined the enforcement of several portions of the new Railroad Commission Acts. Efforts to reverse some of his decisions in the higher courts took several years, and it was 1914 before the state of Alabama and the railroads reached a compromise, long after Comer had left the governorship. Comer is credited, nonetheless, with winning the war to give the state increased regulatory power over railroad freight rates.

Source: http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1529